Tale of Endurance

As the continuation of government interventions to non-communicable diseases, the NCD unit of Directorate General of Health Services under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare brings the third issue of Tale of Endurance into light that addresses non-conventional NCD – injury and arsenic. The third issue of Tale of Endurance intends to captivate the attention of the stakeholders to the present scenario of injury and arsenic caused mortality and morbidity and the available interventions initiated by government and non-government organizations in response.

Largely focused on injury and arsenic, the third issue of Tale of Endurance deals with the Bangladesh context injury and arsenic situation, government and non-government initiatives in response to injury and arsenic, the legislative policies and strategies and the assistance provided by development partners.

In Bangladesh road traffic injury, according to the newsletter, alone brings death to around 52 people and injuries more than 1000 people in each day. It also refers to the Program Implementation Plan (PIP) of Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP) 2011-2016 that shows that burn injury occurs to over 170,000 children per year with over 30, 400 of permanent disability.

It also shows, the Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, considering the escalating trend of injury mortality and morbidity has put tremendous emphasis in next sector wide program 2011-2016 with dialogue engagement with the Ministry of Communication and Transportation for bringing safety policies and regulation. It also addresses how UNICEF has been contributing in reducing injury mortality and morbidity over the decades.

On the other hand, according to the newsletter, till 2006 arsenic contamination in tube well water or ground water was present in 62 districts of out of 64 districts of Bangladesh. It also shows, the cumulative numbers of arsenic patients till 2011 were 56,758 and 7.5 million people at risk.

As the Tale of Endurance depicts, the government interventions for arsenic are National Arsenic Mitigation Program that encourages interpersonal communication, outdoor activities like miking, advertisement in Television etc. It also mentions the National Policy for Arsenic Mitigation 2004 which focuses on creating alternative access to safe water for drinking and cooking. In addition to these government initiatives, Tale of Endurance addresses the interventions taken by UNICEF in mitigating arsenic.